Health & Fitness
History - Caught on Tape!
Treading lightly on the memory of others while using a camera to capture the past.
Maybe one of the most difficult aspects to understand about Urban Archeology is: respect for the dead. Much of my treasure hunting isn’t specific to estate sales; it is a random search of garage, moving, tag, and yard sales that often leads to a purchase motivated by excess or dis-interest of an item by the seller. When it is an estate sale, there is often so little information about whose items these were that getting emotionally involved or fearing disrespect never enters into it.
I don’t always need to know the history of the home, but when various items begin to connect a background in art, literature, business, science, history, etc., I can’t let it go so easily and I usually ask the question, “What’s the story behind this sale?” Mind you, I am careful not to ask if I sense that family members are holding the sale. However, if an estate sale service is in charge, I hope to learn as much as they know about the previous owner. “Who were they?” As I learn more, I am moved to keep digging and find the full story.
Such was the case this past week when I was invited to a preview sale of an historic estate just over the Connecticut border in Brewster, New York. Thanks to Mitch, friend, owner and auctioneer of Applebrook Auctions, I was able to take a private tour of the inside of this 3-story estate.
